Vice Chancellor Alex Zelinsky AO and chief financial officer Paula Johnston outlined at a Tuesday forum UON's financial position and reasoning for its ongoing change program.

"We really have to look at some solutions which look at growing revenue but not growing our cost base at the same rate or greater, hence why we come to a position where we're looking at a savings target of approximately $35 million," Ms Johnston said.

She said under current and proposed changes, $2.4 million could be saved from College Pro Vice-Chancellor Units, $20.4 million from schools, $10.8 million from divisions and $1.4 million from other property and non-salary savings.

She said UON's deficit had increased by around $7.5 million each year over five years.

She said the gap between income and expenditure was projected to grow from $27.5 million in 2020 to $37.8 million in 2021 and $48 million in 2022.

"If we keep going the way we're going we'll no longer [be] financially sustainable, in other words we'll be going broke," Professor Zelinsky said.

He said proposed changes to achieve the "expenditure cut" were "a very appropriate response to the size of the problem".

"I don't think there's an overreach here in any way."

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A staff member said the savings from changes would be lost in three years and asked if there would be further cuts.

"If you don't make reductions now, the problem gets worse... what we're doing now will make us sustainable next year and I believe in the years ahead," Professor Zelinsky said.

Ms Johnston said there needed to be "ongoing discipline going forward to ensure that we don't recreate the problem we're in at the moment."

She said the changes would come with short term redundancy and recruitment costs.

Professor Zelinsky said forced redundancies would be a "last resort".

He said UON was aware as it made changes of not significantly increasing workloads, that both genders were affected equally and continuing to offer academic promotions.

He said UON hadn't discussed pay cuts, but was asked by one staff member how having to apply for a lower-level role did not mean a cut.

"I guess it does, if you choose to do so, yes... we're trying to save as many jobs as we can," he said.

National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch president Dan Conway said Professor Zelinsky had failed to understand the signifcant work pressures university staff were under.

"The NTEU and university appear to agree that excessive workloads are unacceptable," Mr Conway said.

"However, the university does not have a plan for moving forward. It just wants staff to do more with less.

"Currently, the University thinks workload is not a problem, but we know that we have had staff who have complained and argued with management about workload for years.

"The legally binding Enterprise Agreements are supposed to limit the maximum hours of work of staff.

"However, for many years, staff have volunteered additional time to support the university's core business, educate students, and serve the community.

"If management continue to disregard the goodwill of staff, staff will either have to down tools when they reach their maximum limit - or management must begin paying overtime to staff who are forced to work beyond the limit."

Mr Conway said the NTEU was yet to receive detailed financial information about the expenses.

"At the end of the day though, we believe that management are making choices around what is important to them and that is surpluses at all costs," he said.

"Not staff, students, or the community."

Mr Conway said management claimed non-core activities had been supporting core activities. "Even if this is the case, what is wrong with that? If those non-core activities are not undertaken to subsidise teaching, learning and research - then why are they being undertaken? The university is a not for profit, after all."

He said Professor Zelinsky had repeatedly been asked to stand with staff and encourage his fellow Vice-Chancellors to do the same.

"Stand with staff to speak out around the funding environment created by successive federal governments,"he said.

"Closed-door discussions are simply not enough. As caretakers of our public universities, Vice-Chancellors must stop trying to be corporate managers who act within the envelope they are given and simply state the sector is broken. If it cannot support itself with only domestic students, this is quite clearly the case."

He said UON must call for voluntary redundancies to "move forward with as little pain as possible".

"Most other universities have accepted that this is a wise approach - yet Professor Zelinsky insists on tearing the institution apart by allowing a local version of the Hunger Games to proliferate."

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